Cassini/Huygens Mission Update Thread

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mooware

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<font color="yellow">"It is probably some kind of artifact"</font><br /><br />After reading your link, and thank you for posting it! It does seem likely that this is indeed an artifact. <br /><br />Undoubtedly, someone will claim otherwise. <br /><br /><br /><br />
 
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backspace

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Cross-posted from the other thread:<br /><br />Agreed- I saw that image and was equally as puzzled. From the look of it, I'd say it was radiation of some sort hitting the CCD. The patterns are odd, concentric, form strange geometric patterns in coherent areas... <br /><br />I am fairly sure these aren't artifacts caused by dust, since we've seen at various magnifications exactly what those look like. <br /><br />If it was noise in the signal, there's NO WAY it would form patterns that look like an eerie ghostly circuit board. <br /><br />In fact, it's that resemblance that makes me think this is some sort of radiation - be it magnetic, electrical, or alpha or beta or gamma - interacting with the CCD somehow. You can look at that and either imagine the various silicon tunnels in the camera or go out to left field and see heiroglyphics transmitted by a silicate form of the Aztecs..
 
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backspace

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Press conference on now... CIRS had to be shut down manually... wasn't working properly....
 
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thechemist

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I'm watching it right now !<br /><br />Mass spectrometer showed surprisingly C3H4, diacetylene and benzene present at very high altitudes, apart from lots of nitrogen and methane, which were expected.<br /><br />Interesting stuff to come in the following days, including radar measurements. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>I feel better than James Brown.</em> </div>
 
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tekdeth

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You can tell the artifacts are from the camera when running the image through various filters, especially posturization.
 
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decepticon

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I'm so looking forward to the Radar Observations.<br /><br />Also Looks like titan surface looks young so far. The lack of clear cut craters points to a young surface.<br /><br />I'm starting to like the Ganymede type landscape suggestion buy some posters. <br /><br />Some of high Res Pics looked like Tritons polor Cap.
 
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farmerman

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I'm finding the pictures of titan incredible. I was reading on another post that nasa is still trying to determine how high the atmosphere is and possibly have closer flybys in the future. My question is, is there a camera on the probe to take pictures on the surface of titan or is full of instruments and no cameras. To see a picture from the surface. Yummy!!!!!!!!
 
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centsworth_II

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<font color="yellow">"...is there a camera on the probe to take pictures on the surface of titan...?"</font><br /><br />Yes, three cameras will be taking pictures all the way down and on the surface, if possible. One camera is pointed straight down, one at about a 45 degree angle down, and the third is aimed horizontally to the ground. <br /><br />As the probe drops, its will be taking pictures as it turns slowly. so it will take several complete panoramas, at various altitudes. As the probe nears the surface, a spotlight (20watt, I think) will be lit for spectroscopic studies, but will also illuminate the surface for the cameras. <br /><br />Noone knows what kind of surface the probe will land on, but there is the possibility of anywhere from a few to maybe 30 minutes of studies, including pictures, after landing. There is a definite time limit even if the instruments hold up because of limited battery life. Also, the Cassini craft which the probe is sending its data to will speed away and over the horizon of Titan shortly after Huygens touches down. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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Leovinus

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<i>This image shows Titan in ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths. It was taken by Cassini's imaging science subsystem on Oct. 26, 2004, and is constructed from four images acquired through different color filters. Red and green colors represent infrared wavelengths and show areas where atmospheric methane absorbs light. These colors reveal a brighter (redder) northern hemisphere. Blue represents ultraviolet wavelengths and shows the high atmosphere and detached hazes.<br /><br />Titan has a gigantic atmosphere, extending hundreds of kilometers above the surface. The sharp variations in brightness on Titan's surface (and clouds near the south pole) are apparent at infrared wavelengths. The image scale of this picture is 6.4 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel. </i> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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thinice

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It is obviously some kind of interference patterns. I wonder what is the source...
 
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Leovinus

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It's the cloud creature in the Star Trek episode "Obsession". <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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Leovinus

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<i>These images show the surface of Titan at two different infrared wavelengths. They were captured by the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer onboard Cassini as the spacecraft flew by at an altitude of 1200 kilometers (745 miles) - Cassini's closest approach yet to the hazy moon. The image on the right, taken at a wavelength of 2 microns, is the most detailed picture to date of the Titan's surface. It reveals complex landforms with sharp boundaries, which scientists are eager to further study. The image on the left was taken at a wavelength of 1 micron and shows approximately what a digital camera might see.</i> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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centsworth_II

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<font color="yellow">"What about the amazing news that the clouds on the pole are not methane , as expected?"</font><br /><br />And, what about the statement at the press briefing on 10/27 that so far there has been no great compositional difference seen between the dark and light areas on the surface? <br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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titanian

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Currently, it's summer in the southern hemisphere and winter in the northern hemisphere.So, the south pole is pointed toward the Sun (obliquity 26° compared to 23.5° fot our planet) so that it is receiving the greatest amount of heat.So, are those mysterious clouds in the south pole the result of this excess of heating?<br />I'm not totally surprised that those clouds are not made of methane:methane has not been identified in the atmosphere as a formation of clouds and I doubt that the environmental temperature could be low enough to allow liquid methane.On the other hand, I'm interested in the approach of Professor Jonathan Lunine and his model:he talks about hydrocarbon seas ( made of methane, notably) progressively enriched with ethane ( C2H6) which fall as rain from an altitude (upper atmosphere) where the ultraviolet light breaks up hydrocarbon molecules which recombine to form other molecules (tholin, H2, acetylene C2H2,HCN...) and notably ethane.To a certain extent, Chris McKay is in the same line as Johnathan Lunine by speculating that those enigmatic clouds could consist of ethane or a more complex hydrocarbon than methane.<br />But I had never heard about the possibily of clouds of polymer:are there any chemist, here?<br /><br />www.titanexploration.com
 
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trockner

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<font color="yellow">...clouds of polymer...</font><br /><br />Good Lord! What are you THINKING of ?<br /><br />Are you contemplating a world whose surface processes are almost entirely dominated by organic chemistry???<br /><br />This is all too weird.<br /><br />I'm imagining rain that's like the stringy stuff that kids spray all over the place on Halloween!<img src="/images/icons/tongue.gif" />
 
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thinice

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<i>> I just love that crater!</i><br /><br />It is an impact basin named Odysseus - just a remnant of the original crater.
 
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mikehoward

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Sure, try to distract us from the quagmire that is Titan with a photo of a nice well-behaved moon. Stunning pic!
 
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thechemist

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<font color="yellow">Titanian : "But I had never heard about the possibily of clouds of polymer:are there any chemist, here?"</font><br /><br />The terminology concerning the phrase "polymer clouds" is awkward. A lot of scientists use the word polymer when they should really use "oligomer". I can imagine oligomers of acetylene or C3H4 (let's say made of 5-10 monomeric units) with a molecular weight of a few hundred.<br />These might be liquid on Titan's atmosphere and thus be able to produce clouds.<br /><br />However a real polymer is usually solid. Maybe small particles can act as nuclei to promote cloud formation, but a cloud is a dispersion of a liquid in air, not a solid.<br /><br />For an example of improper use of polymer terminology, imho, see this spacedaily article, where Dr. Chris McKay, a planetary scientist with the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California said :<br /><i>"it's some sort of organic goo. It could be some sort of organic polymer, essentially plastic particles. Maybe little polystyrene foam balls. Who knows?"</i><br /><br />Polystyrene foam balls ???? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>I feel better than James Brown.</em> </div>
 
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Leovinus

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So stunning that I'm going to post it here. Forgive me if it goes too wide for the screen. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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